The 92nd Academy Awards airs Sunday, Feb. 9, and the awards show is already getting a lot of heat. Last year’s Oscar drama included (but was not limited to) the lack of female directors nominated in the best director category. This year looks no different.
All five of this year’s best director nominees are men. Bong Joon Ho is nominated for “Parasite,” Sam Mendes for “1917,” Todd Phillips for “Joker,” Martin Scorsese for “The Irishman” and Quentin Tarantino for his bizarre but wildly entertaining “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”
Until the controversial articles started filling my newsfeed, I took no issue with these nominations because, although there are no women nominated for the best director category, the Academy has explicitly noted that 62 women are nominated across all categories for a record of one-third of nominations going to females in Hollywood. However, this fact is getting buried behind the lack of female directors nominated specifically.
It is true that the Academy is a boys’ club. According to an article by the Washington Post, only 32 percent of the Academy voters are female. This is largely due to the fact that, until recently, the field itself has been dominated by men.
Other awards shows are seeing more diversity. Many women took home gold at the Golden Globes this year for excellence in film and television. The other issue with females nominated for best director at the Oscars is that many women are getting involved in long-form storytelling rather than short-form, according to the 2019 film and television statistics season review from the site Women and Hollywood. Television allows more opportunity for fleshing out stories and streaming seasons of shows has slowly begun to take over the entertainment industry.
If we want more females nominated in filmmaking categories like best director, we need more females directing good films.
There are female directors who were snubbed in the best director category, but women have nominations in a plethora of other categories. If it was proven that female directors of incredible movies were nominated for Oscars solely because of their sex, I would take issue immediately. However, if our stance is that women should be nominated specifically because they are women, that is not a celebration of excellence; it’s continued sexism requiring women are recognized for their sex, not their talent.
I am pleased with the recognition my favorite films are getting across the board, and I will continue to implore women to tell incredible stories that deserve recognition.
